Scanned from the folder "Presidential Campaign - Campaign Strategy Program (3)" in Box 1 of the Dorothy Downton Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library .- I /' TH E 1948 ELEC nON Coing into the 1948 election President Truman was in relatively good political shape. I-Ie had the approval of 55% of those polled by George Gallup . ..... t the same time (September 1947) Gallup reported that the Democratic Party was preferred by 56'fo of Lhe respondents to his poll. Nevertheless there were elements in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party who were uneasy and sought out General Dwight D . Eisenhower as their candidate. However, the General Wlcquivocally removed him seli from any political consiclc ration . Tl'uman began his cwnpaign earLy -- before the convention . In June he whistle - stopped for two weeks across Ohio , Indiana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho , Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico , l{ansas , Missouri , Illinois , Indiana, Pennsylvania and Maryland . lIis Uleme. was the sorry r ecord of the HepublicanllgO worst Congressl!. Following the Convention Truman called the Congress back into session on July 25 . He submitted a.t. eight-point program to keep prices down, an increased minimmTI wage bill, a hOl'.sing bill, a civi.l rights bill and other proposals . The Congress played into his hands by failing to act on any of the measures and adjourned within two weeks. thus giving Truman more ammunition to attack the 80th Congress . On September 17, Trmnan began his whistle-stop assault on the Congress that continu ed \\tithout intcl"l"uplion until election eve. Following the Democratic National Convention i.n July Gallup! s survey showed: Dewey 48% Truman 37~~ "0< Wallace '10 No opinion lO~~ One month later in a survey conducted during the third week of August with t.he undecideds eliminated. Gallup rcported: ~ Dewey 54 . O~O Truman 40. 5% Wallace 5 . 5~o -2- A t the end of Septcm"ber Gallup found: Dewey 46% Truman 40% Wallace 4% Thurmond 2% Undecided 8% On November 1 Gallup published his final poll which was conducted between October 15 and 2 5 : Dewey 49.5% Truman 44.5% Wallace 4 %_ Thurmond 2 % The election results were Truman 49.5% Dewey 45.1% Others 5.4% Gallup attributes his error to forecast accurately the elecHon results to his failure to poll right up to election eve. At the tiI?-le of his final poll, 8.7% were still undecided . He explained that !'becausc of apaLhy shown in the campaign it \vas assumed that most of the undeciciecls would not vote .... Not only did nlany of them vote but lJ1CY voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Truman. II President Trunlan's upset victory was, of course, largely of his O\vn making. But, his n.epublican opponent, Thomas E , Dewey, contributed his share to it because he ran a don!t-rock-the-boat campaign that dealt in b1anu generalities that igno red Trum.an's cbarges, Dewey did not make a majol' address until September 20 . Dewey <mel the Republicans assurned that the polls were correct and that Trunlan would be hurt by tlle defection of the solid South to the DixiecrJ.ts and that Henry "Vallace \vould drain traditional left-liberal support. Aftcr the election various c:;...--planations were offered for Deweyls defeat. Dewey's overconfidence caused l'nany Republican voiers to fail to vote, thinking 01eir votes were not nee2ed . The civil rights fight at Ule Democratic Convention, followed by the waU(-out of the Dixiecrats, led to a heavy black vote for Truman in Illinois, .-' --r·~ · ·- ...i ~'\ California and Ohio. In tJlOse three states Tnunan \Von by ") "\,.' 33,000, la,OOO and 7,000 voles respectively. J\10nAL: Neither bore {jle electorate nor take it for granted . 1952 At the end of 1951 President Truman had reached his n,aclir in approval ratings -- only 2.3% thought he was handling his job w ell, 58 ~'o disapproved a nd 19% had no opinion - a large figure. The Truman Admini stration had been engulfed in corruption, bogged dO\'V11 in the Korean \1/a1', and cha r ged with softness on Communism - domestic and foreign. In March Truman annoWlccd he would not seck reelection. The Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson and the Republicans war hero General Dwight D . Eisenhower , who in the inte rvening [our years discovered tha t he was indeed a ncpublican . • Follo'\ving the two conventions Ga llup fotll1d Eisenhower leading Stevenson 47% to ..U % with 12% undecided. Midway in the campaign between September 28 and Oc;tobcr 2, Gallup found the following : Eisenhower 50% Stevenson 38% Undecided 12% In his final poll, conducted October 28 to November 1 Gallup reported: Eisenhowcr 47% Stevenson 40% Undecided 13% With the tmdccided votes a llocated 2 - 1 to the Democrats: Eis enhower 51 fJ/o Slevenson 49 % \viUl the yates allocated 3 -1 for the Democrats: Ei s cnhowc r 5 O~o Stevcnson 50~'o The election results: Eisenhower 55. 1% Stevenson 44 . 4 ~o - 2- Eisenhower began his campaign on September 1. He traveled a total of 50,376 miles by air and rail through 45 states '.vith stops in 232 towns and cities. His issues were those so generously provided by the Truman Administration. Stevenson could net address these issues, nor defend them so he ran against Herbert Hoover. The issue that clinched the election for Ike was his proposal to go to Korea and take a !i,rst-hand look at that bogged - down effort. Gallup in hie; post - campaign analysis attributed Eisenhower 1 s victory to: ( I) His phenomenal popularity (2 ) I-lis decision to campaign in the South (3 ) The Korean \1[a1' issue .. (4) Women and young voters (5 ) Independent voters - - 54% of'whom supported the General MORAL: Ii you are going to grin your way through a campaign, it is well to have a solid record that belies strength behind the amiable exterior. 1956 On September 2.3 , 1955, President Eisenhower had a coronary occlusion. Just prior to this, August 25-30, Gallup conducted a trial heat between the President and Stevenson. The results: Eisenhower 59°,~ Stevenson 37 0/0 In a poll conducted October 6 - 11, 62 % Gallup I s respondents said that Eisenhower would not be a candidate in 1956. At the same time 560/0 said they would vote for Eisenhower if his doctors say it is all right for him to run. On February 29 , 1956, President Eisenhower made a television address to th~ nation and told it he would accept the Republican nomination if it was offered to him . But he also said 11 , •• every delegate . .. is entitled to know now that. .. I shall, in general , wage no political carnpaign in the customary pattern . II Reporting on a survey conducted March 8 -1 2 , Gallup said that Eisenhower had Stevenson by 61 0;'0 to 37% with only 20/0 undecided. On June 7 Eisenhower had an attack of ileitis and had to undergo a serious elTIel"gency operation. Following this Gallup reported that 73% of his respondents thought President Eisenhower would be a candidate and 62~o said they would vote· for him; 35~~ supported Stevenson and 3~'o were undecided. In the fil'!:it t ri;;t1 h eat following the conv entions , Gallup found Eisenhower-Nixon at 52% ; Stcy cnson -l<efuuvcr 410'0 with 7% undecided . 1\ month later, September 9 -14, the figures were exacUy the same. However , in a survey conducted September 20-25 Gallup found: EiscnJl0\Vcr- Nixon 571}O Stevenson- Kefauver 3M'o Undecided 7 0/0 - 2 - In his semi - final election analysis reported November 4 , Gallup said Eisenhower would get 551.l1o of tile vote. In his final poll. conducted October 3D - November 2, Gallup predicted: Eisenhower- Nixon 57% Stevenson-Kefauver 39% Others 1% Undecided 3% The election results : Eisenhower - Nixon • Stevenson - K c£auv c r Al though President Eisenhower had said he would not campaign heavily, he did travel to 13 states and logged 13, 600 miles. The Republicans campaigned on the theme "Peace , Progress and Prosperity . II Stevenson, since there was little in the domestic arena to attack, chose to campai gn on an end to the draft and a cessation of atomic bomb testing . Unfortunately for Stevenson, there was worker unrest in Pol and which ultimately ignited a revolution in IIungary on October 23 . 111.c revolt, after 12 days of fighting, was brutally put do\vn by the Russian army . As if this were not enough, on October 29, Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula, France and Britain landed forces November 5 - 0. It is interesting to note that in a Gallup poll tal<:en September 7, 1952, only 9C;~ of the voters ulought Stevenson could handle the Korcan situation better than E i senhowcr. In a post-election summary, Gallup reported that the most f requent rea son given for ,."oting for President Eisenhower was the belief that he could best handle the int. ernational cl'isis,- keep us out of w ar and deal with Russia. MORAL: If you e>. .-pect to defeat any opponent, dontt attack him at his strongest point. 196 0 In his post - 1956 election poll , Gallup que ried Ste venson voters on lheir reasons for voting [or him . Gallup listed eight reasons given in order of frequency . Number eight on this list \vas: "Elsenhowcr's h ealth would not hold up and they did not like Kixon . II Nevertheless, Nixon did receive the enthusiastic support of Republicans who , according to Gallup, wa s tile choice of 67% of the Republicans.